Bruszewski paces ND to 90-66 win over DePaul

SOUTH BEND, Ind.(AP) -- Becca Bruszewski wouldn't let
fourth-ranked Notre Dame miss a beat when Lindsay Schrader went
down with a sprained left ankle.

Bruszewski scored 19 of her career-high 25 points as the Irish
dominated the second half, beating DePaul 90-66 on Sunday. The
Blue Demons shot 47 percent to keep the game close through much
of the first half, but shot just 31 percent in the second half
and finished with 25 turnovers.

"Their pressure got to us," DePaul coach Doug Bruno said.
"That's the challenge you have when you're coaching a big lineup
is you don't have enough guard play to handle the pressure."

The Irish usually depend on Schrader, a 6-foot guard, to get
their inside game going. But with Schrader watching from the
sidelines in the second half after injuring her ankle when she
stepped on a teammate's foot, the 6-1 Bruszewski took over. She
was 7-of-9 shooting against DePaul's zone in the second half.

"She's just so crafty. She was able to get behind the zone, hide
behind them a little bit," Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said.
"She pretty much scored from everywhere today. She had the
drive, she had the short-corner jumper, she was really playing
well."

Bruszewski said she knew she needed to step up when Schrader
went down.

"Because me and Lindsay are the same position, the same plays so
I was concentrating on staying inside, getting easy buckets,
putbacks, boxing out, stuff like that," Bruszewski said.

"She really just bothered her," McGraw said. "I thought she made
her really uncomfortable that was good."

With the game tied late in the first half, Diggins scored eight
points during a 12-2 run, including a jumper at the buzzer to
give the Irish (23-1, 10-1 Big East) a 42-32 halftime lead.

"It was a huge shift," McGraw said. "We were just a little out
of sync, I though, missing some shots. Defensively, we really
had trouble guarding them in the post. ... But Skylar was able
to get going."

Bruno said that hurt the Blue Demons.

"Whenever a run like that happens it's usually a collection of
little things," Bruno said. "We had a collection of little
things go south for us, little things like taking a quick shot
against their pressure that turned into a layup."

DePaul (16-10, 5-7) cut its deficit to 43-36 early in the second
half on a jumper by Quigley. But Bruszewski scored inside to
spark a 9-2 spurt as Notre Dame went ahead 56-39 and the Irish
continued to pull away.

Both teams wore pink as part of the Pink Zone initiative, a
program aimed at raising awareness of breast cancer. Both teams
wore pink T-shirts during pregame warm-ups and during the game
both teams had uniforms with pink highlights and wore pink
shoes. Notre Dame raised more than $70,000 for cancer research.